Bitcoin Toolkit

Bitcoin Toolkit is a collection of command line tools for working with the Bitcoin network and blockchain. Some capabilities include:

• Create and manipulate public/private keys and addresses.
• Generate QR codes.
• Generate vanity addresses.
• Query the balance of any address on the blockchain.
• Query status info from any remote bitcoin nodes.
• Supports JSON input/output to integrate bitcoin functionality into existing applications.

See the Usage section for a quick introduction on the basics of Bitcoin Toolkit and how to use the help command to get more info.

Table of Contents

1. Download and Install
2. Usage
3. License

Download and Install

The following instructions are for unix and linux systems.

Bitcoin Toolkit was built to be installed without any dependencies. However, there are speed and functionality advantages to having the following libraries installed. They are optional but recommended.

1. libgmp
2. libgcrypt
3. libleveldb

To install them on debian systems:

sudo apt-get install libgmp-dev
sudo apt-get install libgcrypt20-dev
sudo apt-get install libleveldb-dev

You will also need basic build tools (gcc, make, etc):

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Install:

Use git to clone the master repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/bartobri/bitcoin-toolkit.git

Run the make commands inside the project folder:

$ cd bitcoin-toolkit
$ make
$ sudo make install

Uninstall:

$ sudo make uninstall

Usage

Synopsis

btk <command> [<option> ...] [<input> ...]

For details about commands and options see the Help and Man Pages section below.

Basic Examples

Bitcoin Toolkit can do a lot of useful and complex operations, but to get a very basic sense of how it works and what it can do, here are some simple use cases:

Create a new private key:

$ btk privkey --create
[
  "L58TtRui29iURKjVnXWko33VQPco3UTe5gPyhUmG7b6yR7FspDJo"
]

Generate a private key from a passphrase:

$ btk privkey --in-type=string "Secret Passphrase"
[
  "L1Cf21MBhiZX9QFTAhN3PGJkyvQzN4CuHwhasHsdV9tkEfiiB8Ug"
]

Generate a private key from binary data:

$ cat photo.jpg | btk privkey --in-type=binary
[
  "KxRgZMj7dY3eFhJR8zd4JR8jCLFqUvdhj5DiNZVe8DyMDbap464K"
]

Change the compression of a private key:

$ btk privkey --compressed=false KxRgZMj7dY3eFhJR8zd4JR8jCLFqUvdhj5DiNZVe8DyMDbap464K
[
  "5J694FfYQgfD4nP57LrQQRxDjSfFcKwzFyEkp2ULHbCrttPfJPX"
]

Generate the public key from a private key:

$ btk pubkey KxRgZMj7dY3eFhJR8zd4JR8jCLFqUvdhj5DiNZVe8DyMDbap464K
[
  "0237b921b35555af8d6c27017ec2a4c524eac53011d0a45dba227f14937a17cf3b"
]

Generate an address from a public key:

$ btk address --bech32 0237b921b35555af8d6c27017ec2a4c524eac53011d0a45dba227f14937a17cf3b
[
  "bc1qs84fqal6f9pfpcxxtvw3wcjeduuuqwfplctcrp"
]

Generate an address in qrcode format from a public key:

$ btk address --bech32 -Q 0237b921b35555af8d6c27017ec2a4c524eac53011d0a45dba227f14937a17cf3b

█▀▀▀▀▀█ ▄ █▀▀ █  █    █▀▀▀▀▀█
█ ███ █ █ ▀ █▄ ▀ ▄▄▀▀ █ ███ █
█ ▀▀▀ █  ▀▀▄▀▄  ▀▄▄▀▀ █ ▀▀▀ █
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ █▄▀ █ █▄█ ▀ █ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
█ ▄ ▄▄▀ ██ ▄▄▀▀█ ▀ ▄▀▀▀▄▄▀██
▀▄ █▄█▀▀▄▀▀▄  ▀██▀    ▄▄▄█ ▄
▀▄█ ▄ ▀▀▄▀ ▀▄  █▄ ▄▄▄██ ▄  ██
 ██▄▄ ▀▀ █▀  ▀ ▀█▀▀ ▄██▄▀▀██
█▄ ▀ ▀▀ ▄ ▄██▀████▄██▄▄▄▄▀█▀▄
█▀ ▄  ▀█▀▄█▀▄ ▀▀▄ ██ ▀▀ █▀▀ █
▀ ▀  ▀▀▀▄ ▄▀ ▀▀█▀▀▄ █▀▀▀███▀
█▀▀▀▀▀█  ▀▄ █  ▀█  ██ ▀ █▄  ▄
█ ███ █  █▄ █▀▀█▄ ▄▀▀█▀▀▀█ ▀▄
█ ▀▀▀ █  █▄ ▀█▄▀▀ ▄▄ ████▄█▀▄
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀      ▀▀▀ ▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀

Create key/address pairs:

$ btk privkey --create | btk address --bech32 --trace
{
  "Kwbc1yF7G9g8QA3W49ejubBNuU7XkfEyzbPzJSRAiLYZyRJrvym4": [
    "bc1qkknu6wp24au9smjjwazq4wgmlk36rqx2x4ukwy"
  ]
}

Generate a vanity address:

$ btk privkey --create --stream | btk address --trace --grep="^1bri"
{
  "L3UqmMR9F3pTRpJxFw6k2jCsoQkiRAkLGc7enEiThxjpKVo6ZeGA": [
    "1BRiFm93hjdkEz4GPMTfyxQcbR4dPBTJcz"
  ]
}

Query an address balance:

$ btk balance 13A1W4jLPP75pzvn2qJ5KyyqG3qPSpb9jM
[
  "5000000000"
]

Query the state of any node on the bitcoin network:

$ btk node --hostname=seed.bitcoin.sipa.be
{
  "version": 70016,
  "services": {
    "bit 0": "NODE_NETWORK",
    "bit 3": "NODE_WITNESS",
    "bit 10": "NODE_NETWORK_LIMITED"
  },
  "timestamp": 1682030946,
  "addr_recv_services": {
  },
  "addr_recv_ip_address": "00000000000000000000ffffd9b4d894",
  "addr_recv_port": 52614,
  "addr_trans_services": {
    "bit 0": "NODE_NETWORK",
    "bit 3": "NODE_WITNESS",
    "bit 10": "NODE_NETWORK_LIMITED"
  },
  "addr_trans_ip_address": "00000000000000000000000000000000",
  "addr_trans_port": 0,
  "nonce": 1.2171476425208355e+19,
  "user_agent": "/Satoshi:24.0.1/",
  "start_height": 786299,
  "relay": true
}

Help and Man Pages

See btk help to learn about available commands and basic usage.

See btk help <command> to learn more about a command and its options.

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. See LICENSE for more details.